A Brave Herons Flight
by ShikaTachidoriKitsuneHebiTaka
Summary: An OC story, perhaps paired w/ Zoro. I have no promises about updating, i am terrible at doing so. I don't own One Piece. A freak. A mutant. A person of unrivaled bravery, who believes that just a few people can care about her enough for the whole world. This is the story of a young Heron.
1. Chapter 1

The first glimpse was fleeting, almost like just seeing a gigantic rat, but with much skinnier legs. The second sighting of that creature – No, _her,_ - was nowhere near that kind. As the female – he felt awkward calling her anything else – desperately tried to find some way out of the corner she had been backed into for the safety of some place to hide from him, the man was finally able to see her entirely.

Life had not been kind to her, nor had birth, for that matter. Long, tall, and skinny, she was dressed in only rags that sufficed in covering her, but not her mutation. Her legs, that is. They were set back with an extra joint after her knee, adding to both her unnatural height and length of limbs. Her eyes were almost like the cross of that of a cat and a hawk, and he felt paranoid saying so, but the likeliness between her eyes and that of the man he was hunting was uncanny. Yellow with a green rimming, her pupils were slim with fright as the green-haired man studied her quietly.

Even with her legs, the man thought, she was very quick, very flexible. Perhaps that aided her in that area. She was probably a mute, he also thought, most likely by choice. She was the last piece in the crew of the clown-like Buggy pirates, their freakshow. The green-haired man briefly felt anger towards the crew, at how cruelly she must have been treated over the course of her 'stay' with them. She, from appearances alone, was probably only his age, perhaps 17.

The anger was quickly replaced though, with a slight feeling of success and content at succeeding his goal, to discover whether she actually existed or not. It had been just a minor goal, one he had made in the back of his mind, that if he ever, in the course of his bounty hunting, ran into Buggy, that he would at least make an attempt to discover if such a mutant actually existed.

The marimo, as some called him(they were all dead now), turned to leave, although as soon as the girl was out of his vision he felt a soft, light touch on one of his ankles. He turned once more, slightly surprised to find that the girl was still there. He looked down on her, eyebrow raised.

"What?" He spoke, his gruff voice quiet in the strange, somber atmosphere. The girls hand quickly retreated, but her eyes, unnaturally powerful, stared straight at him, carrying a single message.

_Take me with you._


	2. Chapter 2

Hey. So, I got a review, which I didn't exactly expect for some odd reason. I also was an idiot, and left myself with a bad ending in that last chapter. I couldn't really find a way out of that linear-y. plus, I really didn't want to do the arc with Usopp, because for some reason I just really don't like it. I don' know why. But anyway, I was thinking, and I decided that I'd just skip around a bit …heh. Yeah, I think that's a good way to play this. Then I don't really have to worry about any loose ends as much, and I can get to the War of the Best, and this part, which I really wanna do…I got this epic way to have Heron(the girl) involved with it. :3 its staying a secret though. I don't think I've ever actually seen someone have their OC involved like this…epic. Oh, if you are reading this, and think of any good things I could write, tell me, and I might. I haven't actually seen Water 7 or Thriller Bark, heh…^.^' Hulu's weird, it doesn't have it either subbed or dubbed. Just a huge gap. And since the only thing I've seen about Thriller Bark is a weird pedo that looks like a lion trying to forcefully wed Nami so he can basically rape her(Ogling counts), that's kinda destroyed my want to see it…heh. And thanks to my first reviewer, Glueinthesaddle. Enjoy!

* * *

When Zoro disappeared, Heron's first reaction was grief. _Zoro…no, dammit!_

"Hey! What did he do to Zoro!? Where did he send him!?" Luffy turn to the sumo-like-man nearby.

"I don't have to answer you! I'm the world's most tight-lipped man!" He paused and looked over to Luffy. "I don't know if it's true or not, but they say his paw pads can send a person flying through the sky for three days and three nights! Only he knows where he sent him. At the very least, he's not on these islands or anywhere that's easily accessible. Could even be on the other side of the world."

_He still replied…_Despite everything, Heron sweatdropped as she glanced over.

"What?!"

Kuma slowly approached Usopp, who was unaware of the danger behind him.

"Look out, Usopp! Behind you!" Sanji shouted, straining to catch his attention. Usopp turned, eyes wide as he realized what the sound was.

Heron gasped. _What?! He…he removed his own ally?! Him-himself, almost?! _Luffy was shouting to the three of them, Sanji, Brook, Usopp, but right now, Heron honestly didn't care. While she understood strange things more easily than others, she would never attack anyone on her side. It went against everything she stood for.

"BROOK!_!_!"

_Ha- _She gasped. _No…no, no, no, no! Brook…_

"Bastard did it again!"

"Sanji!_!_"

The half-breed lost track of time. Everything passed in front of her without noise. Sanji slammed into a building. Usopp desperately firing Flame Stars. Everything…

"SANJI!_!_!_!"_

Everything. The Dark King. Second Gear. Franky. Nami. And then she stood alone. She looked up at the man, calm with nothing showing on her face. Then she smiled, an honest smile, her eyes closed and her mouth moving.

"Send me some place with water, okay? I hate it when I can't swim."

And then she was gone.


End file.
